This invention relates generally to the field of books, and more particularly, pertains to a book designed to accommodate three dimensional figures within its pages. The figures serve to complement printed material contained on the pages to thereby enhance the learning process. The figures are removable from the pages, thereby allowing their use both as individual toys or for a learning by association process created when a given figure is matched with a given written passage and reinserted within its respective page.
It is well recognized that reading and learning processes are enhanced when the reader's interest is maximized in some manner. This is particularly true with children, for whom this invention is primarily designed.
For example, when learning is made entertaining in some manner, a child is more likely to want to learn. This also creates the effect of increasing the child's attention span as that learning process progresses. Since children have a natural attraction for toys and small physical objects, the present invention provides a form of entertainment which is intended to cause the child to want to read and, in the process, to want to learn.
Learning can also be enhanced when reinforced by a subsequent, somewhat repetitive exercise. By employing the present invention, re-learning by association reduces the amount of information forgotten as a normal function of the memory. Such reinforced learning is provided in the present invention by allowing the toy figures to be removed from the pages in which they are found. These figures may then be used as toys in the usual manner. The child can use his or her imagination in conjunction with the newly acquired knowledge which is printed on the page to create his own games or stories, thereby enhancing retention of knowledge from the initial reading associated with the toy. Further enforcement is provided by the child's re-insertion of the figures within the pages of the book at the appropriate locations of the printed text. This also facilitates relearning by the resulting interaction between physical object and printed text.
The present invention is believed to maximize this enforcement process by utilizing three dimensional figures, which are also suitable for separate use as toys, as part of the printed text. These three dimensional figures serve to maximize interest beyond that which is normally generated by picture books by adding a new dimension to the reading process.
Prior workers in the art have been interested in developing story or educational books for children which include removable features. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,946, 137 shows a story book wherein figures can be removed from one page and then placed onto another page with corresponding text. In this disclosure, the figurines do not extend completely through the page, but rather are removably secured to the surface of the page by pressure sensitive adhesive.
In U.S. Pat. No. 556,467, a picture book having removable blocks is disclosed. U.S. Pat. No. 2,538,085 shows a story book block set wherein apertures are provided in the baffle to permit blocks to be arranged therein.
A child's book is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,548,043 wherein the pages have oval-shaped cut-outs which align when the book is closed. A three dimensional object is movably retained and is shifted as each page is turned. The object is supported on a post and is not readily removable from the book.
These prior developments all relate generally to the combination of a book with a three dimensional object, but none is directed specifically to the concept of employing a removable figurine with a book in a manner to achieve the reinforced learning possible with the present invention.